


Tit For Tat

by HalcyonFrost



Series: Gifts and Prompts [7]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Attempted Seduction, Canon Divergence - Avengers (2012), Flirting, Loki Does What He Wants, M/M, Pre-Slash, Seduction, Shameless Tony Stark, Tony Being Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 14:17:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11922654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalcyonFrost/pseuds/HalcyonFrost
Summary: Using attraction as an extraction technique was a specialty of Natasha Romanoff's. Except Loki didn't have an attraction to her, and the sole volunteer didn't have training. Any spy knew to use their looks as bait for the mark to let their guard down, but Stark was no spy and didn't understand the concept that seduction techniques didn't require actual seduction.





	Tit For Tat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [STARSdidathing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/STARSdidathing/gifts).



> This is a fill for a prompt from aggggeeessss ago that was secretly STARSdidathing before she was STARSdidathing, and almost two a half years later, I finally finished it off! ^^;; 
> 
> Prompt is [here](http://frost-iron.tumblr.com/post/116076636047/i-want-the-scene-that-didnt-happen-in-the), and I reblogged it [here](http://halcyonfrost.tumblr.com/post/164703294897/tit-for-tat-gift-prompt-fill) on my Tumblr with a link to this fic for sharing, if you'd like. ;P

They'd been watching Loki pacing his small cell for twenty minutes, and no one had gotten much further in figuring out how to handle him.

"Maybe it's time to bring the 'Widow' part back into Black Widow." Natasha suggested easily, like seducing secrets out of alien gods was an every day thing. "Overly confident megalomaniacs tend to drop information easily when bragging to a pretty face."

"You mean to seduce him?" Thor questioned with thorough confusion.

"I did it to someone else just yesterday." She shrugged. "It's a play on assumptions. Loki wants to be a lordly ruler; I can work with that."

Thor curled inwards a little. "I am not sure your methods of appealing to his attraction would work on Loki."

That got the rest of the room confused. "Is Agent Romanoff not your brother's type?" Fury asked with no little amount of incredulity.

The demigod grimaced before quietly admitting: "It might benefit your plans to know that my brother has never enjoyed the company of maidens." He said it like it was shameful, and that enough had Tony getting his back up.

There was a collective understanding silence for a moment, everyone's eyes naturally falling back to the surveillance feed of the caged demigod. Well. If no one else was going to do it...

Tony raised his hand. "I'd like to volunteer this time to take one for the team."

" _No_." For being new to working together, everyone but Tony managed to say that single word in perfect synchronization with the same inflection of disparagement and annoyance.

Tony pulled a petulant pout at the rejection and opened his mouth to defend himself, but Widow repeated herself, and Tony snapped his mouth shut with an audible click.

"You don't know how to extract information, Stark," she reasoned. "And we can't risk him getting to close to you and snatching another member of the team."

"What, you think he'd be able to turn me without his disco stick? Okay, actually, that depends on what stick we're talking about and whether demigods can bless themselves with such things or whether it's automatic, but I'm offended regardless of meaning that you would think I'd be so easily swayed with pretty words just because he has a really pretty face. We've got the scepter, Loki isn't trying to escape, he wants to be here, what's the harm in him talking to me?"

"The harm is you might get along with him too well." Fury deadpanned. "The answer is no, Stark."

Tony glared back theatrically for a moment before verbally conceding. "Fine. Your loss."

If Tony was already planning methods to circumvent authority permission, then that would just be his and Jarvis' secret. He just had to slip surveillance first.

**xXx**

It was really, _really_ good to have a powerful AI at his disposal. Let Jarvis loose in the helicarrier's system, have him plot a path to the Containment room, and when he was ready, he let Tony know when the path was clear. One excuse to Bruce about going to find the bathroom on board, and Tony was on his way. Around cameras, past guards, and since Jarvis couldn't override any security doors without tripping alarms, the path happened to involved a few short trips through large and sturdy enough ducts too, the last one which emptied right into Containment. Jarvis couldn't switch the cameras off, but he could keep the main door locked for as long as possible once people figured out Tony was in here. Best to move fast without letting Loki realize the time constraint.

The vent cover got a bit mangled when he kicked it open, and he still had to jump out since the opening was about six feet off the floor, but Tony felt it made a suitable impression when he landed.

Loki frowned and glanced from the door, to the hole Tony popped out of, to Tony again. "Lemme tell you," Tony exhaled a huge breath as he brushed his hands down his clothes to dust and straighten them, "you are a hard guy to reach."

"I might be easier to reach if you tried the door." Loki regarded Tony like he had three heads and was growing another.

"See, that doesn't take any skill though, and obviously, this is me showing off."

Now Loki's mouth curled upwards in amusement, his suspicion waning as he stepped closer to the glass. "What a shame this cage prevents me from returning the sight."

"That's okay. I've seen some of your handiwork already."

"So this is... an introduction? A competition of who shows off better? I think I've got you beat at the moment."

"Actually, I prefer 'proposition' instead. See, you've got some things and people we want, and it seems no one has tried negotiating the information out of you. Threats are so dull. Let's bargain."

There was that look again, with the narrowed eyes and the barely veiled surprise all wrapped around definite intrigue. "And what's on offer in exchange for my information?" So maybe Tony did know how to play Loki a bit, and maybe it meant playing to things that would intrigue Tony himself if the roles were reversed. So sue him; he had commonalities with the crazed bastard. What was the problem if it could work for what Tony needed? What the _world_ needed?

Tony had to flirt to save the world. The amusement factor wasn't lost on him.

Strutting over with his best walk, Tony leaned a hip against the glass and got right in close to where Loki stood on the other side. "See anything in particular you'd like to ask for?"

Loki's eyes trailed down Tony's body so fast, Tony would have missed it if he hadn't been standing so close. Hopefully that would mean the cameras wouldn't catch the appraisal. "A few things." And Tony got what even the Widow couldn't. Score one for the not-spy. "I'm not sure they're available though."

"Hey, the worst thing that could happen if you ask is that someone says no. Then we'll find something else you want."

"Tempting..." Loki stared deep into Tony's eyes, but then seemed to draw himself back without physically moving. "Supposing what I want is an ear."

"An ear that listens or one that was cut off?"

A glare was what was expected; instead, Loki actually laughed a soft, little thing of mirth unfitting for the places they held on either side of two-inch thick bulletproof glass. "I have no interest in morbid trophies. If I tell a story, will I be listened to?"

"Is it a believable one?"

"That's subjective."

"Then I can't say for sure whether or not you'll be trusted."

"Then I suppose you have nothing to bargain with."

Tony grimaced. "Then that's not going to help anyone."

"It seems not." Loki shrugged and straightened away from the glass, which was _not_ what Tony wanted.

"Supposing you tell me the story." Tony offered.

Loki looked very pointedly to the obvious cameras on the wall behind Tony. "I prefer a more private audience."

"Where do you want me to invite you for a chat? Say 'come on back to my place and tell me a tale over a glass of scotch' and then we'll make out on the couch a bit afterwards?"

There was an unreadable spark in Loki's eyes, but Tony chose to ignore the possible implications. "You speak with mocking, but you don't realize how close you are to a deal."

"Then tell me."

"Hmm. No." His tone was slick, like he knew he was catching Tony between a rock and a hard place, and that they were seconds away from Tony upping his own offer.

So Tony gave in. "Then no deal." Tony took a couple steps back himself, throwing his arms out in a helpless gesture. Loki's smug look fractured. "Shame. You could have had what you wanted too."

"As someone with much more knowledge of what I want and how much of that I've received over the years, I assure you, no little deal in a cage will grant me my desires."

"You never know."

Loki did glare that time, before putting both hands on the glass and leaning in close enough for his breath to fog the space before him. "Come closer, Stark."

"Nuh-uh. I've seen this movie. I don't want you punching through the glass and stealing my ID to release yourself or something."

"My hands will remain where they are. You'll be safe from my harm. Now _come closer._ "

If SHIELD knew Tony was in here and they were allowing him to stay, then they wouldn't holster their guns for long after this. And Tony _still_ hadn't gotten what he came here for. If he turned around and left now, the trip would have been for nothing. What other option was there? Tony tentatively crossed the short distance and stopped just a few inches away from the barrier.

"One step to your left."

Um. That was kind of specific. And suspicious.

 _"Sir,"_ Jarvis spoke into the earpiece Tony had hidden from view, _"One step to the left will obscure Loki's face from view of the cameras."_

Oh. Well, that could be good or bad tidings. Sometimes, you had to take the chance it was what you wanted. He stepped to the left.

"I can't speak my piece without risking myself. I need time. And a discussion with your tall, green friend."

"You want to talk to Banner's dark side? I don't think he's much a conversationalist."

"I don't need him to be." Loki explained to no actual help. "And afterwards, perhaps I will take you up on that offer of your place and a drink."

_"Sir, SHIELD agents are at the door of the containment room. I won't be able to hold them at bay long."_

"You get what you want when I do. So it looks like you're staying here for now."

"Perhaps being here is part of the plan. So it seems that with time, we will all 'get what we want.'"

The doors screeched open a half inch and stopped again as Jarvis fought to override the agents furiously punching in codes on the other side, but their voices could clearly be heard through the crack now too.

"Well, isn't that interesting." Loki purred, and Tony flicked his gaze back to Loki staring him down from inside his cage. "It would seem your negotiation attempts weren't sanctioned."

"I was hoping to get them sanctioned after the fact."

Loki tutted and stepped back, still holding himself as if he had all the power here. "I admire your bravery. Perhaps it would please you to know you got what you came for after all." He grinned when Tony's brow furrowed in confusion. "You wanted my attention; you've gotten it now."

Finally, enough agents won over Jarvis, and the doors slide open to admit the flurry of agents that came in and grabbed Tony by his arms to drag him back from the cage. Loki only held his hands up in mock surrender.

Hill gave a stern look between the two, her jaw set in anger and her eyes narrowed in sharp calculation, before nodding to the agents holding Tony. "Get him out of here."

"Until next time, fair Stark." Loki called as Tony was perp-walked out the door, and he only barely caught Hill's snapped remark before being too far gone to understand the words.

Hill caught up in a few seconds, and the rest of the would-be super-team was back on the bridge when Tony arrived and was forced into one of the chairs at the conference table.

"That was stupid, Stark." Fury admonished. "And dangerous."

"He's in a cage that he wants to be in." Tony pulled himself upright into a more comfortable position than the slump he fell into when they pushed him into his seat. "How dangerous can it be to talk to him? If I recall correctly, that's exactly what Miss Widow was going to do."

"Agent Romanoff is a trained operative. You're an amateur with no talent for espionage. You could have gotten killed."

"I resent that and move to remind you that not being a spy or a soldier doesn't make me useless. But oh, wait, I forgot - you never did approve of me, you approved of what I could make. You'd prefer Bruce and I in a lab making things that your agents can shoot other people with."

Fury glared, but Tony wasn't cowed this time.

"So if you'll excuse me, Nick, I've got a lab to get back to."

**xXx**

Loki escaped; of _course_ he did, and everyone left alive was barely that way. After that, the shit should not have continued to pile on.

With Loki in the wind, Tony was left to question where. He was just theorizing, throwing out ideas, and then he realized: _he fucking invited Loki to his own damn tower._ And that unreadable something in Loki's face when Tony mentioned it, was suddenly not so unreadable anymore. The fucker planned it from the start.

So yeah. Negotiations were over, and threats were on. And infuriatingly, Loki was unbothered by it. Until Tony hit a nerve, and Loki tried to convert Tony to the dark side with shiny things that clashed too much with Tony's shiny things. Ha. Loki might have been surprised, but honestly, Tony was so weak with relief, it just became funny.

"This usually works..." Loki was so _confused_. Tony was in hysterics on the inside.

"Well, performance issues, not uncommon." Loki glared when he looked up, but Tony had to poke the angry bear just one more time- "One out of five-"

Loki's hand on Tony's throat cut that off pretty sharply, but not tight enough to suffocate. Just warning. "I know you visited my cage with very specific intention." Loki said, and Tony stared back at him from very close quarters. "And I didn't lie when I said you had my attention."

"Yeah? And what are you going to do with it?"

Loki grinned. "What indeed?" And in the time it took Tony to gasp, his breath was swallowed up by Loki's mouth on his, hard and demanding but still thankfully closed-lipped. Tony was too shocked to close his eyes, having to stare back at Loki's unblinking, calculating gaze until he finally pulled back and just looked at Tony like a puzzle a few pieces short of finished.

Tony knew he was still wide-eyed, and he opened his mouth to say something without knowing what, when Loki's hand tightened and threw Tony to the floor.

Shit. Moment gone. Time for backup. "Jarvis. Any time now."

He saw Loki's foot an instant before Loki's hand found Tony's throat again and hauled him back upright. Tony grappled with an arm and a grip like iron, but Loki didn't budge a fraction. "Best call your armor to you now, sweet boy. It's time we fly."

"Deploy." Tony's feet left the floor as Loki lifted him, "deploy!"

Just once it would be nice to test a new suit in way that wasn't "try or die." Just once. Good thing the homing feature still worked once Tony was out the window and halfway to the sidewalk below.

**xXx**

Loki won a couple fights, but the Avengers won the battle. When they met Loki again - beaten and half-broken on the floor of Tony's penthouse, Loki grinned through split lips and lounged back against the steps with enviable ease. "If it's all the same to you," he looked directly at Tony, "I'll have that drink now."

Even bloodied and defeated, he still had big ol' brass ones. God help him, Tony couldn't stop from pulling a smirk at that. Loki had _style_ , that was for damn sure, and Tony could damn well respect that much.

"You'll get your drink when I get my food." Tony declared for the team. "We'll cuff you to a chair in the restaurant if we have to, but I'm getting my damn schwarma. Anyone trying to stop me can bite my shiny, metal ass."

Loki was the only one to laugh, but then again, hearing him laugh was pretty unsettling, so maybe the others would have at least chuckled if Loki hadn't broken into a gravelly, dark cackle and made everyone else exchange very uneasy looks between each other.

**xXx**

If possible, Schwarma tasted even better than it smelled, and that was saying a lot.

Maybe he was tired, maybe he was biding his time, but Loki minded his manners and his mouth in Schwarma, and only offered Tony a licentious grin while Loki was being cuffed to a bench in front of the window. He gave a longing look to food he wasn't offered, and Tony legitimately tried to ignore it as easily as the others were, but he'd barely finished scarfing his own down in less than three minutes and crumpling up his napkin before he just couldn't stop watching Loki watching food.

Tony swung himself onto his feet and swiped a so far uneaten extra gyro from Thor before going over to take a seat in the booth across from Loki. Loki's attention was divided between Tony and the food in his hand for several difficult seconds before Tony spoke up. "How long since you've eaten?"

"At all? Not long. Several times since I arrived on your realm." Loki's eyes narrowed at the wrapper in Tony's hands. "Since I had something appetizing?" His gaze flicked back up to Tony's face. "Longer."

Tony just pushed the food across the table wordlessly, and Loki gave him an odd look before tugging it closer and starting to hungrily pick out pieces to eat with his fingers. It wasn't ravenous, but it wasn't so dissimilar to how the Avengers likely looked tucking into their own food five minutes earlier. so Tony allowed Loki a few minutes and a dozen bites before trying to talk to him. The other Avengers were still eating and zoning out, and while Clint had carefully watched Tony cross over to Loki, no one was looking at them all that closely. Seemed everyone was too tired to be on hyper-alert anymore.

Once Loki finally started to slow eating, Tony piped up again.

"So. What's your story?"

Loki paused and furrowed his brow. "I would have thought it no longer mattered."

"I'm still willing to listen if you still want to tell."

He thoughtfully took another bite, staring at Tony suspiciously the whole time he was chewing. Loki looked oddly young as he studied Tony - like a child trying to decide whether or not to trust a stranger. Yet also exactly like a fully grown panther studying its prey for an opening to attack. Panther or child, it was the same calculating glare of accusation and attempt to scale what they were up against. Loki's tone was neutral and leading when he finally spoke again. "It might be a long night."

"I've got stamina, how about you?"

There was a challenge in the narrowing twitch of Loki's eyes and turn of Loki's lips that left a heat in Tony's gut that he shouldn’t have allowed. Shouldn't have allowed, but again, too tired to stay on alert right now. Loki leaned his elbows on the table and quieted his voice to purr low enough to escape the Avengers hearing. "I'd certainly be willing to test it with _you_."

Oh. That wasn't helping his libido. They were still talking about _talking_ , right? Maybe?

Fuck it, who even _cared_ anymore?

"Then it's a date." Tony declared, and there was a charming, excited spark in Loki's face that Tony was not going to quash by any means. "You can take that to go, by the way," he pointed at the food, "just no food in bed under my roof."

"I wouldn't dream of it. Not when there are so many better ways to occupy my mouth."

Oh. "This is going to be a very long night."

"Yes," Loki grinned, "it is."

**Author's Note:**

> Unfortunately, this fic is not part of the next batch of updates, but I thought I would post it anyway. In the next couple weeks, I'm moving into a cramped living situation that will likely last for several months, and while at least I won't be working on renovating and packing out a house at all hours of the day, on the downside, I'll be sharing a smaller space with more people. So I could either have a ton of time or no time, and time will only tell which it is. ^^;; 
> 
> Until then, I'll be posting updates singly as I finish them, so keep an eye out on here and on my tumblr (halcyonfrost.tumblr) for updates!


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